


Unfiltered

by nightberrypearl



Category: NU'EST
Genre: 2hyun being shy children, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 01:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19140874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightberrypearl/pseuds/nightberrypearl
Summary: Minhyun and Dongho are baristas who regularly use their shared knowledge of Japanese to talk privately during their shifts.The appearance of a new cute regular at the cafe has Minhyun gushing to Dongho at every opportunity, but is his gushing really as private as he would hope?Spoiler alert: it's not.





	Unfiltered

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something short that I decided to throw together... I've played with this idea and wanted to write it for a while so I finally took some time to finish the half written scraps that I had lying around.
> 
> Enjoy~~~
> 
> Underlined speech: Japanese

Minhyun could feel his feet ache with exhaustion as he flitted around behind the counter finishing up the last order of the lunch hour – unambiguously the worst hour of his 4-hour shift at the coffee shop where he worked. It was the hour full of grumpy businessmen, none of whom seemed to have any concept of patience nor basic politeness.

Minhyun felt like he was about to drop when Dongho handed him yet another order slip.

“Don’t worry, it’s the last one.” Dongho assured him, making Minhyun sigh in relief.

One last stupid businessman with one last order and after that, he could finally rest. He could do this.

Looking at the order, he was thankful that this last order wasn’t some obscure concoction with all sorts of particular and pedantic instructions. None of that, thankfully, just a simple vanilla latte.

Once done, he began to call out the order as he turned to the collection counter.

“Order for…” Minhyun paused to check the name scrawled on the side of the cup. “… Jonghyun?”

He lifted his head to search for any potbellied men in suits that the drink could belong to.

“That would be me.”

 _Oh_.

Minhyun wordlessly handed him his drink, his mind in a daze.

He idly registered the quick ‘thanks’ that Jonghyun offered him before taking his drink and taking a seat at the table by the storefront window, not too far from the ordering counter.

Jonghyun was not a potbellied man in a suit.

Minhyun turned to Dongho who looked back at him with a questioning look.

Jonghyun was not a grumpy businessman.

No, Jonghyun was—

“Cute. He’s so cute oh my gosh.”

\\\\\

\\\\\

\\\\\

“He’s here! That cute guy, he’s here.” Minhyun whispered frantically to Dongho as Jonghyun walked into the store.

“Help, what do I do?” Minhyun pleaded as Jonghyun got closer and closer to the serving counter.

“Your job?” Came the response, accompanied by an eye roll. “Take his order.”

Minhyun chose to ignore the, in his opinion, frankly unnecessary attitude. He was about to clarify his question – despite the fact he was convinced that Dongho pretended to be ignorant just to annoy him – but was cut off by the arrival of the customer in question.

Minhyun turned away from Dongho and towards Jonghyun, and effortlessly flashed what he deemed was his friendliest smile.

“Hi there! What can I get for you today?” Minhyun greeted in his usual customer service voice.

Jonghyun returned his smile in kind and Minhyun felt his heart stutter at the sight of it.

“Just a vanilla latte, thanks.”

Minhyun almost wished that Jonghyun’s order was more complex if only to be able to hear Jonghyun’s deep but smooth voice even more. Any other customer, he would be more than happy if their orders were as simple and concise as they possibly could be.

“No problem, coming right up! Oh, and can I get your name, y’know for the cup?” Minhyun asked, albeit redundantly.

He watched as Jonghyun swept his eyes over the empty coffee shop before turning back to Minhyun with a raised eyebrow. Minhyun tried his best not to facepalm in embarrassment and pretended he hadn’t noticed. He continued to stare at Jonghyun still with a smile on his face.

Thankfully Jonghyun had some mercy and didn’t say anything more, giving a slight, almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders before offering Minhyun his name.

Dongho was not nearly so courteous.

“Smooth. Really smooth.” Dongho remarked amusedly once Jonghyun had walked over to the collection counter.

“Shut up.” Minhyun muttered as he watched Dongho go about making Jonghyun’s drink.

“Do you think stupidity is contagious because I don’t want to catch any from you.”

Minhyun chose to ignore that particular jab.

“Why did you even ask for his name? You’ve been using it to gush about his ‘beautiful eyes and adorable smile’ for the past few days so I know you know it.”

Minhyun felt his ears grow warm at the, in his opinion, inaccurate impersonation of his voice that Dongho used to quote him word for word.

“Just, erm, wanted to try and make some conversation…?” It came out more as a question than a statement and the uncertainty in his tone sounded foreign to his own ears.

Dongho let out a sharp laugh, clearly finding amusement in Minhyun’s infatuation.

“His voice… it’s just… I swear I could listen to him talk all day long about literally anything.” Minhyun enthused.

“You’re hopeless.” Dongho scoffed as he finished up Jonghyun’s drink, pushing a plastic lid atop the cup.

He was about to turn around to hand it over to Jonghyun when Minhyun suddenly reached out and grabbed it from him and turned to give it to Jonghyun himself. Dongho stared at him with widened eyes, an unspoken question hanging in the air.

“Here you go, one vanilla latte.” Minhyun chirped brightly.

Jonghyun ducked his head and smiled as he thanked Minhyun for the drink.

Minhyun watched as Jonghyun took up the same seat by the storefront window that he had claimed the last time he was there.

When he turned back to Dongho, he saw the other man continuing to stare at him demanding some sort of explanation for their break from the usual rule that whoever makes the drink serves the drink.

“Wanted to save him from having to look at you.”  Minhyun joked, not wanting to really answer Dongho’s question – he had been laughed at enough that day already.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” Dongho questioned, as his eyes narrowed into a glare.

“I’m less of an eyesore than you.” He continued to tease lightly, flashing his friend a fake charming smile and a poor attempt at a wink at him in the same instance.

“Fuck off.”

///

///

///

Minhyun’s head jerked up when he heard the sound of the door open and close.

It was just the wind.

He sighed as he relaxed back against the counter.

“That’s the third time you’ve done that today.” Dongho snorted from behind him.

Minhyun pouted as he turned to face his friend.

“It’s been a whole week since Jonghyun was last here and my shift is almost over…” He lamented, “what if I don’t get to see him again?”

“It’s only been a week.”

“But he’s usually here twice a week—”

“It’s literally just been these past two weeks—”

“That practically makes it a routine.”

Dongho gave him an incredulous look. He looked like he wanted to say something before shaking his head, ultimately deciding that Minhyun’s ridiculousness was useless to reason with.

The minutes crept by with Minhyun almost obsessively watching the front door, hoping that the next person that would come in would be Jonghyun.

But Jonghyun never came.

Minhyun’s shift came to an end and he had to rush off to make it to campus for his next class. He wondered if there was any possibility that he might bump into Jonghyun on his way, but they didn’t. Minhyun could only hope that Jonghyun would return to the coffee shop again soon.

 

\\\\\

 

“You know Jonghyun showed up the other day after you left.” Dongho told him as he walked out of the back room after getting changed into his uniform.

“He did? That’s nice.” He tried not to show how eagerly he wanted to hear about Jonghyun but upon hearing Dongho snort in amusement, he could tell that his friend had seen right through him.

“Yeah, it was nice.” Dongho said lightly, “We had a nice little chat while you weren’t here.”

Minhyun snapped his head round to stare at his friend who ignored his prying gaze and continued to wipe down the surfaces.

“Do you” Dongho began slowly, putting down his cloth and finally turning to Minhyun, “want to know what he said?”

Minhyun nodded immediately. To Dongho, it was almost comically how poorly concealed Minhyun’s desperation was.

“Did he ask about me?”

Dongho chortled.

“He didn’t even know your name.”

“’Didn’t’? So you did talk about me!” he exclaimed.

“Maybe a little.” Dongho said with a shrug, finding joy in prolonging the suspense.

Minhyun wanted to push and pry further but it was at that precise moment that the exact person they were talking about walked into the store.

“Oh hi Jonghyun!” Dongho waved and greeted him congenially – in Minhyun’s opinion, _too_ congenially.

Minhyun glanced from Dongho’s wide and friendly smile, to Jonghyun’s own shy smile and then back to Dongho. He narrowed his eyes at his co-worker, wondering to himself exactly what the two of them talked about the other day that they could now be so chummy with each other.

“Hi Jonghyun,” Minhyun greeted, hoping he didn’t sound too bitter nor jealous, “here for the usual?”

Maybe it was the sudden warmth of the café after being out in the cold but Minhyun could have sworn that Jonghyun’s face was beginning to take on a light flush. He tried not to stare too hard but honestly, it was a real test of his willpower.

“Hi,” Jonghyun returned with a somewhat shy looking smile, “and yes that would be great, thanks Minhyun.”

Minhyun’s heart quivered. Perhaps he should have been worried that Jonghyun had so much power and control over him, but he couldn’t even bring himself to care. He had a few other things to think about first.

“What did you two say about me the other day?” Minhyun asked after Jonghyun had walked away to the collection counter. He continued to follow Dongho around as the latter made Jonghyun’s drink.

“Oh, not much,” Dongho said coyly, “I just told him about how whipped you are for him.”

“You didn’t…” There was a hint of a question in his tone, because truly he couldn’t be sure when it came to Dongho. He wouldn’t put it past him to have actually spilled the beans to Jonghyun.

“Nah, I didn’t.”

Minhyun sighed and relaxed in relief.

“I didn’t have to.” Dongho continued, “he already knew.”

He blinked at his friend in confusion, not really liking the undertone of mirth in Dongho’s tone.

“Didn’t you, Jonghyun?” Dongho asked as he turned to hand Jonghyun’s his drink.

Jonghyun looked up from his phone and stared back at the two of them with wide eyes, looking like a deer caught in headlights. The flush that had been on Jonghyun’s cheeks earlier deepened as the three of them remained caught in this three-way staring contest.

“W-what…?” Minhyun muttered almost fearfully, praying that Dongho wasn’t meaning what he thought he was meaning, hoping that the look in Jonghyun’s eyes wasn’t of understanding.

“Jonghyun speaks Japanese.”

Minhyun felt like the room just got a few degrees warmer.

“Didn’t you know?” Dongho broke off into giggles as he watched Minhyun’s face grow redder and redder.

“A-all this time…” Minhyun began, “you knew what I was saying?”

He almost didn’t want to know Jonghyun’s answer to that question. He cursed internally as Jonghyun looked away shyly and nodded sharply once.

Minhyun felt like the world’s biggest fool. This entire time, every single time Jonghyun had been in the store, he had gushed and gushed to Dongho about the cute customer before him and every single time, Jonghyun had understood every single word.

Well fuck.

“I-I’m so sorry, gosh I must have made you so uncomfortable, I don’t know what I was thinking but oh my gosh, I’m so so so sorry I—” the apologies flowed from Minhyun in a barely comprehensible stream of consciousness but gosh this whole time, he had been such an idiot.

“It’s, erm, fine.” Jonghyun finally cut off Minhyun’s rambling, his interruption making Minhyun’s mouth snap shut immediately.

“It was kinda cute…” Jonghyun added quiet voice. Had the café not been totally empty except for the three of them, Minhyun might not have heard those words that sent his heart racing.

A brief period of more silence followed as Minhyun racked his brains for some sort of a response but came back empty.

The moment was broken by a sudden laugh from Dongho.

“Honestly, you two fools are meant for each other.” He said, attracting both of their attention to him. “Just exchange numbers or something already.”

 “Er, Well, do you—?” Minhyun stuttered as he gestured to the phone in Jonghyun’s hand.

Jonghyun unlocked it and handed it to him wordlessly.

Minhyun took the phone gingerly, as if afraid that it would bite, and he could feel his fingers shaking as he put in his number and made sure to double and triple check it to make sure he typed it correctly.

He handed it back and the three of them dissolved back into a rather awkward Mexican standoff.

Minhyun almost sighed in relief when the appearance of a new customer broke the tension and Jonghyun stopped staring at him. So much staring was _not_ good for his mental capacities. How on earth was he going to ever act even vaguely normal when Jonghyun was right there being unintentionally distracting?

“I’ll text you?” Jonghyun suggested as he grabbed his previously forgotten drink from the counter between them.

“Yeah.” Minhyun managed to say, “I’d like that.”

Jonghyun gave him one last smile before heading to sit in his usual seat by the window.

A sudden slap on his back from Dongho pulled him from his daze as the latter walked to the counter to take the order of the recently arrived customer.

“You can both thank me at your wedding.”

Minhyun spluttered and he watched as Jonghyun choked on his drink. Their eyes met briefly in the aftermath and Jonghyun gave him a shy smile before ducking his head in embarrassment.

Perhaps Jonghyun overhearing them hadn’t been such a bad thing after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading until here! 
> 
> Honestly I didn't expect to get this written out so soon but what can I say? 2Hyun are just so... c u t e lately that I had no choice. Gosh they flirt so much. Remember when we lived off scraps? We've come a long way. 
> 
> Anyway, kudos and comments in particular are much appreciated as always so feel free to leave some :)
> 
> Also, I lurk in these places:  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nightberrypearl)  
> [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/nightberrypearl)
> 
> Until the next fic~~~


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